


rockstars

by sunsetstanley



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Bisexual Richie Tozier, Child Abuse, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier-centric, F/M, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, M/M, Protective Eddie Kaspbrak, Protective Richie Tozier, Richie has good parents, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, and henry can rot in hell with sonia, idk more tags later??, just a typical reddie fic tbh, like he cares about his eddie spaghetti a lot, maggie tozier is an angel, oh and eddie's a jock, richie is soft for eddie bois, richie's a nerd lmao, they're both low key oblivious, wentworth is an idiot but a lovable one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:08:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetstanley/pseuds/sunsetstanley
Summary: Eddie quickly ran up to Richie and helped him up, apologising for Henry and saying that he hated his teammate and was sorry he couldn’t stop it. Richie told the smaller, slightly frantic boy not to worry about it, ‘Good ol’ Bev’ll fix me up, don’t worry about it short-stuff.’ Eddie didn’t get to reply again, Victor decided it was necessary to drag him off in a similar way Bill had done to Henry, muttering something about faggots and reputation.





	1. Chapter 1

Richie and Stanley had been best friends for as long as either of them could remember. It’s just how it worked; Stan the Man and Trashmouth Tozier, best buds for life, as Richie would say. All throughout elementary and middle school they were all each other had, they weren’t the most social duo, and even if they were, the constant bullying and harassment they received didn’t make them seem very appealing. Until Beverly Marsh that was, Beverly was treated similarly to Richie and Stanley, except she also got the bonus of mild sexual harassment along with it. She told her two friends once that she was hardly twelve when Henry Bowers first grabbed her ass, and by the time she was thirteen the school thought she had slept with every member of the The Bowers Gang, as well as every other boy in school- and some of the girls too. Except Richie that was, which is how they became friends. Henry was giving Richie shit for being gay on the first day of 8th grade- he had claimed that not even Beverly Marsh would suck his dick if he paid her. Beverly Marsh happened to be walking down the corridor as Henry sniggered the remark, and happily bashed him over the head with her rucksack. The whole thing quickly turned into a mess, it was too one-sided to be classed a fight, the only three people who ended up getting hurt were Richie, Stan and Bev- but it was worth it. Two had become three, and Beverly finally found two boys who didn’t grab at her ass or tits at any given opportunity.

That’s how it stayed throughout 8th grade, as well as freshman and sophomore year. Richie, Stan and Beverly; the three musketeers, the triple threat, the terrific trio. They were all each other had and all they really needed, Richie and Stanley happily helped Beverly through the painful and difficult times with her dad, when Stanley’s dad was being too overbearing they would all pile onto Richie’s couch and watch movies all night, reminding Stanley he was amazing and definitely good enough for anything. And Beverly started bringing in a small first aid kit to school for Richie, although all of them still got shit from Bowers and the other athletes, Richie got it the worst. Stanley was smart, awkward and probably had OCD, sure, and everyone did still think of Beverly as a bitchy slut who wasn’t worth talking to, but Richie was gay, or as everyone else put it  _ ‘a queer’  _ or  _ ‘the fag’.  _ Richie didn’t even know he was for a while, he’d always liked girls- and him and Stanley both used to get called it, so he assumed it just meant something similar to  _ ‘fuckface’ _ or _ ‘retard’ _ . Then he realised what it did mean, and it still didn’t bother him too much- him and Stan both being called it now had new context, but Richie still knew that he wasn’t it, he never had been and never would be.

Then he saw Eddie Kaspbrak for the first time in three months after the summer holidays between freshman and sophomore year. He’d known Eddie his whole life, he lived in Derry like everyone else at their small school and had attended Derry schooling since preschool. He was Bill Denbrough’s best friend since birth, and since middle school good friends with Mike Hanlon and Ben Hanscom as well. Eddie has always been shorter, and he used to be teased by Bowers as well, but that eventually stopped when Eddie joined the track team and baseball team freshman year, and even before that his friendship with Bill meant he wasn’t targeted too much. Bill and Henry were weird, Bill very obviously hated the mullet wearing freak, and Henry probably hated Bill right back, but they were both jocks, and their parents were friends- so they ended up spending a significant amount of time together.

Richie realised he liked Eddie Kaspbrak at the start of sophomore year, he was with Henry, VIctor and Bill as they were on their way to practice. Richie and Stan were waiting for Beverly at her locker as they always did, when Henry decided to pull Richie back by his shirt and throw him to the set of lockers parallel to Beverly’s. Richie remembers Eddie letting out a shriek at Henry’s actions and shouting for him to stop, and Stanley had told him Bill had to grab onto the shorter boy for whatever reason- Richie didn’t get to see that as Henry decided that there was the perfect place to punch Richie across the face while letting out a wave of  _ ‘faggot’  _ and _ ‘four-eyes’  _ and _ ‘fucking queer’ _ . Eventually Bill pulled Henry off and pushed the taller boy in front of him so they could head to practice, he smiled at Richie and looked like he wanted to say something else, but didn’t.

Eddie quickly ran up to Richie and helped him up, apologising for Henry and saying that he hated his teammate and was sorry he couldn’t stop it. Richie told the smaller, slightly frantic boy not to worry about it,  _ ‘Good ol’ Bev’ll fix me up, don’t worry about it short-stuff.’  _ Eddie didn’t get to reply again, Victor decided it was necessary to drag him off in a similar way Bill had done to Henry, muttering something about faggots and reputation.

Richie never spoke to Eddie again after that day, but was suddenly very aware of who he was. It was like now that he knew Eddie existed and was nice, Eddie was all he saw. Then he started daydreaming about his peer, and after a few days started to find him good looking, in the same way he used to think about Greta Keene back in 4th grade. When he realised he had a hopeless crush on the short athlete, he cried to Stanley and Beverly about it on one of their movie nights. He knew it was wrong and gross to think like that, but he also knew him thinking like that made Henry Bowers completely right about him. Stanley suggested it was probably because Eddie was nice to him, and it wasn’t a crush but more a desire for friendship. Richie knew Stanley was wrong because he didn’t tell his friends how he thought about kissing Eddie the night before. Beverly told him it wasn’t gross or disgusting, that there were tons of people like it and it should be accepted, it  _ would _ be accepted when people learnt to not be so closed minded. Richie just sunk into the couch more and regretted saying anything, because as great as Stanley and Beverly were, they probably found it just as weird, gross and wrong as Henry and the other jocks did. Because it was wrong, disgusting and not normal. Richie was gross.

After that sophomore year went pretty normally, the trio still got shit from Bowers, and Richie learnt how to deal with his crush, or whatever it was, better. They all still hated school, yet ended up getting pretty good grades. It was like any other year. But then, Beverly started dating Ben Hanscom.

Ben was nice enough, he was friends with the jocks and played football with Belch and Henry, but most of the time he stayed with Mike, and Bill and Eddie. Him and Beverly started talking to each other at the end of sophomore year, both of them needed to go to extra math lessons; Ben because he was putting too much time into football, and Beverly because she missed a lot of it, as well as other subjects, due to her dad. She ran away three times that year, and was back within a week every time before staying at Richie or Stan’s for as long as she needed, each time decorated with new bruises and cuts. It upset Richie a lot, and Stanley too, but they stayed strong for her- because that’s what she needed.

Ben was instantly head over heels for the redhead, and everyone could tell. He started walking her to school (she didn’t want her dad seeing Ben’s truck and getting mad at her for hanging out with Ben, she’d been calling Richie and Stanley Rebecca and Stacy to him since they became friends, and they’d never even been allowed near her house) and sometimes at lunch instead of sitting with Richie and Stanley, Beverly would walk around the school with Ben. By the time they got back to school for junior year, Ben and Bev were pretty serious, and that meant he wanted her with him all the time, and she wanted to be with him just as much. Which is how Richie and Stanley ended up sitting with Beverly and the jocks at lunchtime.

It had taken Beverly a lot of convincing for Richie and Stanley to even consider sitting with the athletes, but eventually they gave in. They knew it would make Beverly happy, and as much as they wished she could just bring Ben to their table, they walked over with the happy couple the fourth day into junior year and awkwardly sat with Ben’s friends. Beverly still spoke to them a lot of the time, and Ben would too- he was too nice not to, and Stanley even had a decently long conversation with Bill and Mike. Richie just sat there sulking. He either just payed attention to what Stan was talking about with the others, or ignored everyone all together. He could feel Henry’s eyes burning into him, and he really didn’t want to do anything that could aggravate the bully in the slightest. Overall the first day they sat with Beverly’s new friends wasn’t so bad, it wasn’t as good as just the three of them, but it wasn’t awful.

And then they went back the next day and it all turned to shit.

Richie and Stan followed Beverly to the two tables/general area the jocks occupied as they did the day before, and they sat next to each other in the same seats as well. Beverly was next to Stanley, leaning into Ben and easily laughing with him and Bill about something. Eddie was at opposite Richie, and Richie refused to even look at him- that was guaranteed to not end well, no matter what happened. And then, Henry Bowers took the empty seat between Richie and some other guy Richie didn’t really know. It was hard to ignore Henry, you could smell him from a mile away and he was staring at Richie in a way that meant it was immensely hard not to look at him. Then, Henry decided to slide his hand along the table, forcefully pushing Richie’s whole lunch off the table and over the floor, Richie turned to look at his now ruined lunch, so Henry then took that as an opportunity to shove him off the bench as well as he spat out a, “Fucking faggot, who said you could sit at our table?”. Richie was never one to back down from a fight, despite always losing them, and after a few seconds pushed himself up before shouting a, “Fuck you!” at Bowers and attempting to shove him over in a similar manner. It didn’t work, at all, and instead Henry was able to grab both of Richie’s wrists with one hand and pull Richie down while punching him square in the face with his other hand, he then let go of Richie’s wrists causing him to fall back down to the ground.

At this point, Stanley and Beverly were up trying to help Richie, and both Bill and Ben were shouting at Henry. Once his two friends were able to help him up, Richie found himself looking to Eddie, who was still sat in his seat between Bill and Henry. He was staring at Richie with a look Richie couldn’t read, and they held eye contact for what felt like a decade, but in reality was only a few seconds. Eddie then looked away from Richie, and instead to Henry, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” the short boy shouted as he stood up from his seat, staring daggers at Henry.

Henry just laughed at Eddie, which just pissed Richie off even more, “What’s wrong with me? I think you should be asking that to the faggot.”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up,” Eddie threatened, looking more angry by the second, and Richie couldn’t think why.

“And what are you going to do if I don’t?” Henry taunted, giving Eddie the same look he was giving Richie minutes before, “Get Big Bill over there to punch me? Hide behind Mike like you always do? How about you just run away, you’re on the track team of fags anyway.”

Henry’s fist was clenched by the end of it, and everyone had gone silent as he towered over Eddie. Eddie looked like he wanted to say, or shout, something else, but instead looked between Henry’s face and fist a few times before sitting back down in his seat, not even looking near where Richie, Stanley and Beverly were now frozen in place. Ben and Bill came over to the three of them, and Mike stayed firmly behind Eddie, resting a hand on the short boy’s back while offering an apologetic smile to Richie. The situation was a mess, and Richie felt bad for causing it, he knew him (and Stanley) sitting there would be a problem, but he couldn’t imagine them sitting there again anyways.

“Sorry about him,” Ben said as the group left the cafeteria, “None of us really like him, except Victor, Belch and Patrick, but we all hate them too.”

“It’s fine,” Richie said, forcing a smile, “I’m used to it by now. It’s my fault for sitting there.”

“We did tell you us sitting there wouldn’t end well,” Stanley added, looking at Beverly.

“It isn’t your fault at all,” Ben promised, “You guys seem nice, and I definitely prefer you two to him, a friend of Bev’s is a friend of mine.”

“Y-Yeah,” Bill agreed, “H-H-Henry’s an a-ass, a-ask anyo-one.”

“At least he likes you guys,” Stanley argued, “He can’t go two minutes without beating the shit out of one of us, as you saw.”

Bill let out a nervous laugh as he looked at Ben, “H-He’s a p-p-prick to s-some of u-us t-too, l-like E-E-” Bill cut himself off before adding, “I p-probably sh-shouldn’t s-s-say, b-but h-he isn’t nice t-to us eith-ther.”

“Why are you friends with him then?” Stanley asked, giving both Bill and Ben a strange look, “Surely you can just not sit with him?”

“We’re all on the same teams, we kind of have to get along. If we didn’t we wouldn’t play as well. Or we would, but it’s better to know the people you’re playing with?” Ben didn’t sound sure of what he was saying, and to Richie and Stan it just sounded like he was making up excuses, but they didn’t question it further.

They carried on walking in silence as they made their way to a bench just outside the cafeteria, Richie’s nose was bleeding slightly from the punch, thankfully that was all Henry managed to do before Eddie jumped in. Richie smiled to himself at the thought of Eddie fighting for him, he had no clue why Eddie did it or what motivated the tiny ball of energy, but he was thankful Eddie said something, otherwise his face would look a lot worse right now. He also obviously liked the idea because it was Eddie- he would’ve been happy if anyone stood up for him, but his small crush on Eddie did add to it slightly.

It also upset him slightly when Eddie sat back down, not because he was selfish and wanted Eddie to carry on defending him, but he just suddenly looked terrified. Richie would be too, he was most of the time Henry started verbally or physically attacking him, but seeing it happen to Eddie just upset him. He didn’t know Eddie, at all, meaning he couldn’t really have judgement on the relationship between him and Henry, and he didn’t even know why he was so infatuated with Eddie in the first place- but something in him cared about Eddie a lot, and watching Henry treat him like that just upset Richie even more.

Richie sat down on the bench with Stanley and Bill, Ben and Beverly opting to instead stand in front of them.

“Here,” Beverly said as she offered Richie a tissue, noticing the slight smears of blood on the back of his hand and his nose, “Sorry it’s old- I haven’t used it, don’t worry. My bag’s still inside though, otherwise I’d have a new one.”

“It’s alright,” Richie replied, he didn’t really care even if the tissue was used, it meant he wasn’t covered in blood, which was all he really needed at this point, “Probably shouldn’t sit there tomorrow,” he added, once he’d wiped his hand and nose down.

“Why should you have to move?” Beverly asked, clearly wanting her boyfriend and bestfriends to both be able to sit with her.

“Because it’s Henry’s group,” Stanley points out, “For once Richie is actually right. You can still sit there, they probably won’t mess with you too much now you’re dating Ben, but me and Richie sitting there is pretty pointless.”

“But where will I sit?” Beverly whined, but it had a hint of understanding to it, meaning she understood Richie and Stanley (and her too, really) weren’t welcome at the table.

“Stay with your friends,” Ben suggested, “I’ll sit with you guys sometimes, or you could sit with us and just try to avoid Henry.”

“Like Henry would let me avoid him,” Richie laughed, “I didn’t do shit to him today.”

“W-We c-could a-always st-stop h-him,” Bill suggested.

“The only thing that stopped him today was him getting distracted by Eddie,” Ben pointed out.

“Sh-shit, y-yeah. W-We sh-should g-go ch-check on E-Eddie,” Bill agreed.

“He has Mike,” Ben reminded Bill, “and he doesn’t need constant protection.”

“I-I-I know, I j-just d-don’t l-like th-the i-idea of h-him b-being th-there,” Bill started, “We b-both know M-Mike w-wouldn’t d-do m-m-much to H-H-Henry.”

“You guys don’t mind if we go back then?” Ben asked, looking between Richie and Stanley for a second before putting all his attention on Beverly, who was leaning into his side.

“It’s fine,” Beverly smiled at Ben, “We’ll figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

“Cool,” Ben started, “I’ll meet you on the corner like normal, yeah?”

“It’d be an honor,” Beverly said as her smile only widened, “And can you grab our bags?”

“C-Course,” Bill answered for Ben.

Richie and Stanley also said a quick goodbye to Bill and Ben as the duo made their way back to the cafeteria.

-

When Richie got home he was starving, which was understandable considering he got about two bites of his sandwich at lunch. His mother, Maggie Tozier, was in the kitchen and the house smelled like bleach, meaning she was probably cleaning. Maggie had never had a job really, which Richie was weirdly grateful for. She’d tried various things before, like working at the local grocery store or some other smaller job, but nothing really stuck, she just prefered being able to work at home, as stereotypical as it was she would much rather clean the house and be home with Richie after school than be out working a nine to five job. It was nice for Richie too, he knew Stanley’s parents were both gone until early evening, and Stanley spent a few hours after school by himself in the house. Richie couldn’t even imagine that, he loved being able to come home and have a snack with his mom, or watch some shitty show on TV. It was weird, in a way, Richie knew other people at school weren’t really close to their parents, or just rarely spoke to them, but Richie loved his.

He made his way to the kitchen, where unsurprisingly his mom was wiping down the counters, “Hey Ma,” he said as he swung his bag onto the table and made his way to the fridge.

“Richie! I just cleaned that,” Maggie whined as she moved his bag to the floor.

“Oh shit, sorry,” Richie mumbled as he carried on looking for something to eat.

“Language, and what are you looking for?”

“I don’t know, something. I didn’t have lunch today.”

Maggie made her way over to the fridge, putting the cloth and cleaner on the counter she was working on, “What do mean you didn’t have lunch? Did you forget it?” as she asked it Richie moved to the side slightly so his mom could look through the food more easily.

“No, Bowers just thought it’d be funny to throw it across the cafeteria,” Richie sighed.

“Did he hurt you again?” Maggie asked, suddenly looking at Richie with concerned eyes.

“He only shoved me over,” a slight pause, “then gave me a nosebleed, but I was fine. Bill, Ben and Eddie had a go at him.”

“And who are they?” The mother still looked concerned for her son’s wellbeing, but also had a look of happiness almost, the thought of Richie having more friends besides Stanley and Beverly was a nice one.

“Ben is Bev’s new boyfriend,” Richie started to explain as his mom went back to looking through the fridge, “he’s nice. Bill’s his friend, and because they both play baseball- or football? I don’t know which one, they sit with Henry. We sat there today because Bev wanted to be with Ben. Eddie’s also friends with them, I don’t really know him though. Didn’t speak to me much.”

“Well he still said something to that awful Henry boy, which by the sounds of it not many people would do. Same thing happened when I was younger, with Butch. They’re all the same that family.”

Richie didn’t say anything for a second, thinking over how to reply, “I think he’s scared of Henry though, I don’t know why, but the whole thing felt weird.”

“Here, we can have this to eat,” Maggie happily cheered as she pulled out a baguette style loaf of garlic bread, “And I don’t blame him, imagine being stuck with that all day?”

“I feel bad for all of them,” Richie agreed, “Ben said they all hate him, but just have to put up with him.”

“They’ll get sick of him eventually, I’m surprised they haven't already.”

“I think they probably have, and just can’t do much about it,” Richie pointed out, to which his mom let out an annoyed but agreeing sigh.

The garlic bread was good, and Richie shamelessly ate more than half of it, but he was hungry- so it was fine. After he finished eating he headed upstairs to his room, he had some maths homework he needed to do and just generally wanted to hang out by himself for a while, he had a couple hours until his dad got home, and therefore a couple hours until dinner. He didn’t know what he could do to fill the time, but would easily be able to find something.

His room was a mess, it always had been though, clothes and school books thrown everywhere, papers and candy wrappers littering his desk, water bottles, blankets and shoes anywhere they would fit. It was a mess, but it didn’t bother Richie and his parents gave up trying to get him to clean it regularly a while ago, so it was fine.

Richie ended up just laying on his bed listening to music, it happened quite a lot. Stanley thought it was weird that Richie could just do nothing for hours and not get bored, and Richie didn’t understand how Stan couldn’t. It was nice, and relaxing, just laying in your thoughts with good music surrounding you. Richie normally did it when he was feeling stressed out or bored, he didn’t know why he chose to do it now though. He still hadn’t done his math homework, and he had nothing to stress over.

He was, however, thinking about Eddie. How the short boy was quick to jump to Richie’s defense, and how he was the only one (besides Bill) who defended him, excluding Ben- he probably felt obliged to as he’s Bev’s boyfriend. Eddie seemed genuinely mad at Henry, like what Henry did  _ actually  _ annoyed Eddie. It was stupid to over analyse it, and didn’t mean anything in reality, but Richie had a tendency to over analyse anything and everything. As much as he knew Eddie probably didn’t care all that much for him, and was just being nice, part of him still chose to believe that maybe Eddie liked him. Maybe something about Richie was actually interesting and desirable to people besides Stanley and Beverly, maybe something about Richie was interesting to Eddie, maybe Eddie for whatever reason liked Richie, and didn’t hate the idea of being his friend. Richie knew he was over analysing it, and Eddie was just being nice- as Ben and Bill were- but the thought of Eddie caring about him made him feel better about himself, so he stuck with that.

-

The trio went back to their normal seats the next day, it really wasn’t worth the inevitable repeat of yesterday that would happen if they sat with Ben again. They were still in the cafeteria though, and Beverly was still able to send small smiles and waves to Ben. It was obvious the girl wanted to be with him though, but chose not to say anything because she didn’t want to leave Stan and Richie. Richie thought she’d make a nice addition to their group really, she was stunning in every way, and no one really bullied her anymore. Henry still called her a slut, and occasionally Patrick or Belch would grab her ass, or Victor would wolf whistle at her, but she hadn’t gotten anything too bad for a while, and her new relationship with Ben didn’t hurt things either. Richie also kept finding himself looking over at the table, or at Eddie, more specifically. A couple times Richie looked over Eddie was looking at him too, which made his heart unnecessarily beat quicker, Eddie always just instantly turned away to look at Bill, Mike or Ben. 

“You can go sit with him,” Stan said to Beverly as she looked over her shoulder to where Ben was at the other side of the cafeteria.

“I don’t want to though,” Beverly sighed as she turned back around, “Well I do, but not with his friends- they’re assholes. And if I did put up with them to sit with Ben, you guys can’t come.”

“It’s fine,” Richie reassured, because it was, him and Stan shouldn’t keep her from being able to sit with Ben, they got to see her all the time, “We don’t mind, he’s your boyfriend.”

“Yeah,” Stanley agreed, “It’d be wrong for us to keep you from him, you clearly want to sit with him.”

“Guys, I’m not leaving you two,” she said it like it was an extremely obvious thing, “You’re my best friends- my only friends- I’m not going to ditch you for Ben.”

“When are you going to talk to him then?” Stanley asked.

Beverly let out another sigh as she stretched her arms out over the table and leaned onto it, then looked up to Richie and Stan, “I don’t know,” she pulled her arms back towards her so they were now crossed with her chin resting on top, “I wish he’d come sit with us, it wouldn’t hurt him.”

“Only his reputation,” Richie added.

“Beep-beep Richie, he’s a jock, not much could harm his poor reputation. And anyways, he doesn’t care about that kind of shit, if he did he wouldn’t be dating me.”

“You’re not the one who would be hurting his image,” Richie pointed out, before adding a quick, “no offense,” to Stanley.

“You’re right,” Stanley agreed, “Just go ask if you two can walk around together, then he doesn’t have to come here and you won’t have to sit there.”

“But what about you guys?” Beverly whined, “I’d miss youuu,” she said in a sing-song voice, dragging out the ‘u’ sound.

“You see us everyday, go have fun with your boyfriend,” Stanley said as he finished up his sandwich.

“Can you two come with me? You don’t have to sit down or anything, we’ll leave right away too, just so I can see Ben and try to drag him along? Please?!”

“Do we have to?” Richie frowned at Beverly, after yesterday he had no intention on going anywhere near that table again, if Henry Bowers as much caught him (or Stan) looking in their general direction he’d get the shit kicked out of him.

“We’ll be like two seconds, you won’t have to sit down- I’ll just ask Ben if he wants to walk around with us for a bit, he’ll probably say yes and then we can leave. Or he says no and that’ll be fine too, then we’ll just walk around.”

“And if Henry, or any of them, have a problem with us going over to their table?” Stanley quizzed, as unsure as Richie was on the plan.

“We’ll be the bigger people and leave, or beat the shit out of him,” Beverly smirked.

“You’ll beat the shit out of him,” Richie corrected.

“Happily.”

It took Richie another minute or two to finish his lunch, and when he was done the group of them stood up and started to make their way over to Ben’s table. Eddie was sat in the same seat he was in the day before, between Bill and Henry, who were talking to each other over Eddie. Ben caught sight of the trio relatively quickly, and happily waved at the three of them, Beverly then enthusiastically waved back before skipping over the short distance left to the table, pulling Ben into a hug as soon as she was close enough. Richie and Stan were hesitant, not sure on how close they should get or where they were meant to stand, but they ended up standing pretty close to the table, just next to Beverly slightly.

Richie made sure to look at the floor, he had no problem arguing with people, but ideally this would be a quick trip to ask Ben if he wanted to walk around with the three of them, and then they’d be gone in a few seconds either with or without the football player. After a moment or two, however, Richie felt someone looking at him. It was a weird feeling, almost like a sixth sense, Richie had no idea how it worked or how people were able to just  _ know  _ when someone was looking at them, but he didn’t question it really. It wasn’t that deep. Richie couldn’t help but look in the direction of the stare, he was expecting it to be Henry in a similar way to the day before, but he was pleasantly surprised when he looked up. Eddie Kaspbrak was still quietly sat between Bill and Henry, just looking at Richie. When Richie made eye contact with the boy he offered him a smile, a small smile flickered on Eddie’s face for a moment in return before his eyes were suddenly fluttering around everywhere that wasn’t Richie, and then eventually landed on Bill.

Ben was just standing up to come with Beverly, Richie and Stan to wherever they were going, when Henry suddenly decided to start paying attention; he looked over to Ben standing up at first, Ben’s arm was wrapped around Beverly’s waist and she was facing away from him slightly, saying something to Stanley that Richie wasn’t paying attention to. This caused Henry to slowly look over the line they were now basically stood in, finally landing on Richie- who was still looking in Henry and Eddie’s direction.

“I thought I said we didn’t want you faggots near us,” Henry said it quietly, but the question was filled with hatred.

“Henry, we’re going now,” Ben tried calming his teammate down, “Just drop it?”

“Drop it? Sorry, I just don’t want some four-eyed-faggot anywhere near me, didn’t realise you would,” Henry was speaking to Ben, but looked at Richie as he said it, “It makes me fucking sick,” he quickly added, staring at Richie with complete disgust.

“Oh suck my dick,” Richie said in reply, trying to stay calm. Ben was on his feet now, they’d be gone in a few seconds- there was no point in letting Henry annoy him.

“Oh you’d fucking love that,” Henry sneered, “You’re fucking disgusting. Queers like you, make me feel fucking sick.”

Richie was going to say something else, but as he was trying to think it over he felt Stanley tug at his sleeve slightly, telling him to just leave it. Richie gave up trying to argue, it wasn’t worth it really, but he did look back over in Henry’s direction again, and saw Eddie frantically looking at Bill.

“You gonna say something?” Henry asked, his voice remained quiet and calm, yet somehow contained more hatred than when he was shouting and beating the shit out of Richie.

“H-Henry, sh-sh-shut the f-fuck up,” Bill started, “Th-they’re g-going.”

“Oh fuck off Denbrough,” Henry sneered, louder than he was talking to Richie, “Stop defending it.”

Bill was about to say something else when suddenly Eddie was on his feet, “What the hell is wrong with you? Just shut up!” Richie was now just staring at the three of them, Henry looked more pissed off by the second and as soon as the words left Eddie’s mouth he looked scared of the greasy, mullet wearing baseball player towering over him.

Henry clenched his fist as he looked down to Eddie, “Really? You too?” he was speaking the same way he had spoken to Richie moments before, the slight bit of respect left in his voice from when he was speaking to Bill was gone, then Henry was talking so quietly Richie could hardly hear what was being said, “Or are you one too? Wouldn’t surprise me, you run track with all of them.”

Eddie’s breathing has visibly gone up, and his eyes were looking between Henry’s fist and face in the same way he had done the day before. Henry seemed to have forgotten about everyone besides Eddie, as he stared down at the shorter boy, Richie had no idea what was happening, or what was going to happen, but the situation did make him slightly nervous.

“It’s cute though,” Henry started in the most condescending voice possible, after a few moments of silence, “One faggot defending another,” he said it quietly, much like before, so Richie (and presumably the other people around the table) couldn’t hear what was being said clearly. The whole situation did confuse Richie, he always assumed the jocks and athletes all got along, they stuck together like a weird pack and acted like they would do anything for one another, yet Henry was treating Eddie with the same amount of respect he had for Richie.

“You’re a piece of shit,” Eddie bluntly said, fear only slightly present on his face.

Henry had obviously ran out of words and insults, the conversation evidently being too long for him to stay focussed on, as instead of spitting another insult out at Eddie, he pushed him as hard as he could into Bill. Luckily, Bill seemed strong and was able to break Eddie’s fall, only stumbling back slightly himself, “H-H-Henry! Wh-What th-the f-f-”

Bill was cut off from speaking as Eddie pulled himself out of the taller boy’s grasp. As soon as Eddie was free he reached down for his backpack and threw it on his shoulders before standing where he was before, still under Henry’s glare. Richie expected Henry to push Eddie again, or for Eddie to just sit down or walk away. What he didn’t expect, however, was for Eddie to pull his arm up before quickly swinging it around, hitting Henry square in the face. Richie felt himself smile at the sight, and was so distracted in the amusement of watching Henry stumble back and grab his nose in pain, he didn’t notice Eddie quickly moving past the bully and around the table. Eddie was quick with his movements, which was unsurprising considering he was on the track team, so within seconds he was passing Richie- almost in a run to flee the cafeteria. As he passed by Richie, he grabbed the dazed boy’s wrist, breaking Richie from his trance on Henry, and meaning that Richie had to also suddenly break out into a run. Eddie was quick, and Richie was not. That mixed with the fact that Richie wasn’t expecting to be running, and was still wearing a stupid grin from where Eddie sucker punched Henry meant that Richie tripped over his own feet slightly. However, he was determined not to lose the short track star who was still tightly gripping his wrist, so he regained his footing as quickly as possible and tried to keep up with Eddie’s fast pace.

The cafeteria wasn’t too big, meaning it hardly took a minute for the two to make it outside, near the bench Richie had retreated to the previous day. Once out of the school Eddie stopped, only after looking behind him to check that no one followed them, “Sorry,” he started, looking down at where he was still holding Richie’s wrist before quickly letting go, “I- uhh- I didn’t want him hitting me again, and- and you know, if I just fled he’d probably just hit you instead. Plus I look less weird running away with someone else. Sorry though, you can- uhh, you can go back in if you want.”

Richie was still just grinning, but now at Eddie, probably way too happy about Eddie deciding to drag him off, or even thinking to, “What? It’s fine, I get it,” Richie reassured.

“Really? Are you sure?” Eddie asked, suddenly seeming a lot more self conscious, “No, this is weird, isn’t it? I’m sorry- I just, you can go back. I don’t mind.”

“Eds,” the nickname, much like the many Richie had for Stan and Bev, came to him easily, “It’s fine, you probably saved my ass honestly.”

“Eds?” Eddie looked confused by the name.

“Yeah, it suits you. Short and sweet, just like you,” Richie said it with the grin still plastered on his face, and Eddie seemed amused for about a second before frowning at Richie.

“Stop it- don’t call me Eds. And I know I’m short, just… Shut up.”

Richie laughed at Eddie a little bit, he knew the boy was cute- but up close and in conversation he was fucking adorable, “Are we going to walk around then? Or do you want me to go?” Richie asked, unsure on what the plan was now.

“Can we go to the outdoor seats? I know there’s a bench here- but y’know, I don’t want to be anywhere near Henry really,” Eddie replied, now smiling again.

“Sounds like a plan,” Richie clicked his tongue after he said it, and pointed finger guns at Eddie, earning another laugh from him.

The two started to make their way around the cafeteria, it wasn’t separate from the main building, but more of an extra part built off it. Once around the cafeteria they had to walk past the library, which was a separate building, as well as the social sciences and art blocks. FInally, after about five minutes of slightly awkward, quiet walking, they made it to the outdoor seating, which was just seven picnic benches covered in various pieces of graffiti. There was a group of freshman girls taking up two of the benches, and a couple sophomores on another, but besides that they were empty. Eddie took a seat at the closest one, and Richie decided to sit opposite him, it didn’t make much sense sitting next to him, it was easier to talk if they were facing each other.

Eddie shrugged his bag off his shoulders once he was sat down and let it sit next to him on the bench before letting out a sigh, “I’ve got practice next,” as he said it he rested his elbow on the table and his head on his hand.

“Is that a bad thing?” Richie asked, genuinely curious.

“No, I like baseball. I just don’t want to see Henry, that’s all. And after that shit show he’s going to be fucking pissed at me,” Eddie complained.

“Just punch him again,” Richie laughed, “the prick deserves it.”

“He would actually fucking murder me,” Eddie said it in a joking way but there was a sense of truth to his voice, “I’m already going to have to practically hide behind Bill later.”

“I’d offer to help you out, but me and you both know that wouldn’t end well, a lanky stick like me just can’t go against a caveman like him.”

“Oh well, if I know it’s coming it won’t hurt as much, I should be use-” Eddie cut himself off, causing Richie to look at him slightly confused, “I should just go in and act normal, maybe he won’t hit me at all,” Eddie finished.

“He’s probably so pissed off at the fact he didn’t beat the shit out of me to remember you Eds,” Richie replied, again laughing slightly as he said it.

“Yeah,” Eddie paused for a second, “What do you have next?”

“Bio,” Richie replied, “I’m with Stan the Man though, so it’s good.”

“Do you have awful nicknames for everyone?” Eddie asked, smiling once again.

“Nicknames? Yes. Awful ones? No. You should be honored, really, Eds”

“Oh I’m flattered,” Eddie joked, “but the real question is: does anyone have shitty nicknames for you?”

“Oh I have an array of them,” Richie started, “My personal favorite has always been ‘faggot’, simple y’know? But sometimes if ‘m lucky I’ll get ‘four-eyed-faggot’, which can actually be even better somehow.”

“I meant an actual nickname idiot, like what do Beverly and Stanley call you? They must have something.”

“Not really, actually, they don’t call each other my nicknames either though. I mean, they call me Rich, but that’s it.”

“You deserve the worst nickname imaginable to be honest,” Eddie chuckled.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, I’m not good with that thing, but you deserve one.”

“How about I just make more for you?” Richie asked, raising a brow at Eddie, “That way you’ll be as included as Stan and Bev.”

“You’d give me the honor of having more than one nickname?” Eddie brought both his hands to his chest and opened his mouth slightly, acting flattered.

“Anything for my Eddie… Eddie…” Richie stopped as he thought a possible name over, “Eddie teddy? Eddie confetti? Eddie Spaghetti? Eddie Spaghetti!”

Eddie just burst out into laughter, full on hands-on-stomach and curling over, Richie didn’t think it was that funny, but Eddie’s reaction made it completely hilarious, and it wasn’t long before Richie was almost crying with laughter himself, one hand covering his mouth, the other tapping on the table as he leant back. They probably looked insane, the two of them laughing over absolutely nothing, but Richie really didn't care about that. The more they laughed the funnier it became, causing them both to continue laughing to the point where they couldn’t even remember what they were laughing at. 

Suddenly the whole event was interrupted with a “There you are!”

Richie turned, only slightly stopping laughing, to see Beverly, Ben and Stan approaching them, “We were looking for you.”

Eddie was still face down looking at the table, practically crying with laughter, and showed no signs of stopping- making it impossible to reply to Beverly as the sight of Eddie laughing sent Richie right back into a fit of his own.

“What are you laughing at? Nothing could be that funny,” Stanley said to the two of them, wearing a face of complete judgement.

“I don’t even know anymore,” Richie answered between laughs.

At the same time, Eddie replied with, “Eddie Spaghetti,” before laughing even more.

“Eddie what?” Ben asked, clearly not understanding what was said.

“Spaghetti,” Stanley answered.

Richie and Eddie managed to calm themselves down, then the two turned to Stanley, Beverly and Ben- who were still looking at them in confusion and slight judgement, “So what brings you fine three to us?” Richie asked, looking between the three of them.

“You’ve got baseball practice next, right Eddie?” Beverly asked.

“Yeah, why?” the blond boy replied.

“Henry’s really fucking mad,” Stanley bluntly stated, “We got out of the cafeteria quickly after you two, but he was really pissed off.”

“Shit,” Eddie muttered to himself, “Did Bill say anything?”

“He tried, as we were leaving he was holding Henry back, telling him to calm down and everything. Mike was worried too, so he might have said something after we left,” Ben reassured.

“Don’t worry, he’s still mad at Richie for whatever reason too,” Beverly tried to reassure Eddie, but didn’t seem too certain as she said it.

“How much longer do we have of lunch?” Eddie asked Ben, looking extremely concerned.

“Uhh-” Ben checked his phone, “Seven minutes, we should probably get going.”

“Shit, okay,” Richie grabbed his bag and stood up, ready to make his way over to Stanley so the two could head to bio. Eddie did the same thing, putting his bag on as he stood up, and the five were pretty much silent for the few seconds it took. As Richie was taking the few steps over to Stan, he felt Eddie grab his wrist again, except this time it was much lighter. Richie turned to face the shorter blond boy, who suddenly didn’t look even slightly happy, but instead seemed almost scared, “Can you walk me to practice?” Eddie asked it quietly, Richie wouldn’t be surprised if the others didn’t hear it to be honest.

“What? Yeah- yeah of course, Eds.”

“Thanks,” Eddie smiled slightly, which was reassuring considering how quiet he suddenly went.

Richie turned to the others before saying “I’ll see you in bio Stan, walking Eddie Spaghetti here to his baseball shit, don’t want him getting lost.”

“Okay, see you there,” Stan replied, him, Bev and Ben then turning to walk to their lessons.

Eddie let go of Richie’s wrist, but stayed closer to the taller boy as they walked towards the gym. It was in the opposite direction to Richie’s next lesson, and him walking Eddie there would probably result in him being late, but he didn’t really mind. He really liked Eddie, and had done for a while at this point- so, he wasn’t too bothered if he missed a bit of biology to walk the shorter boy to practice. Richie had no idea why Eddie wanted Richie to walk him to be honest, but he didn’t feel the need to question it, he was happy to do it no matter the reason.

It only took a few minutes for them to get to the gym, Eddie said goodbye to Richie and the two were about to walk off in their own directions, when Eddie spun back around, “richie! Wait, I forgot,” he half ran half skipped the few steps between them to carry on talking to Richie, “What’s your phone number? As we’re like friends now? We are friends- right? You d-”

“Yeah course,” Richie replied, cutting Eddie off from rambling and answering both his questions, “I don’t know it at the top of my head though so one second,” Richie grabbed his phone out his pocket and was able to quickly able to pull up his number, “Here y’go Eds.”

Eddie got his phone out, it was an older model- probably the one Richie had in 8th grade/freshman year. Richie watched as Eddie typed Richie’s number in his phone and then took his phone back, not even a second later getting a text from an unknown number of the emoji with two buck teeth and glasses, “It’s you,” Eddie said to him, giggling slightly, and Richie couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Well, see you around Eddie Spaghetti, I should probably go,” Richie sighed as he turned his phone off.

“Yeah, me too, bye!” Eddie cheered, turning to head to practice.

As Richie started to walk to bio, he turned his phone on again so he could add Eddie to his contacts, he saved the boy as ‘Spageddie’ and then went looking through the emojis to send one back to the boy. He decided on the baby face, and after sending it added a ‘look there’s one of you too’ and then ‘get it, because you’re small’.

He kept his phone out for the entire walk to bio, weirdly hoping that Eddie would reply. When he got back to the outdoor tables, and about halfway to biology, it said Eddie had read the message, but he didn’t reply. The logical side of Richie told himself that it was because Eddie was getting changed, or talking to Bill or someone. But the more over the top side of him managed to convince himself that he said something wrong, if there was something he could have said wrong, and Eddie just didn’t actually want to talk to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can you meet me at the toilets?
> 
> Outside science?
> 
> He regretted it as soon as he sent it, it was a stupid text and a stupid request. Richie wouldn’t just leave his lesson to talk to Eddie, especially out of nowhere-
> 
> Richie: yeh sure.
> 
> Richie: everything ok? Something happen?
> 
> Eddie sat up straighter as he read it, realizing that he would now actually have to make his way over to the toilets, and he probably should reply to Richie too,
> 
> No
> 
> Richie: no everythings not ok? Or no nothing happened???
> 
> Eddie thought it over for a second, considering replying with a simple ‘nvm, it’s sorted,’ but instead typed:
> 
> Not okay

Eddie laughed at Richie’s text, normally it annoyed him when people commented on his shorter height or smaller frame, but with Richie, it felt different. He wasn’t doing it to point out a weakness, or to mock him. Richie was nice, which was refreshing for Eddie. His life at school was a constant competition- that he was definitely losing- besides the standard competing to try to get the best grades and scores, he also had to try to run the quickest, send the baseball the furthest. His friends didn’t really care for grades- besides Mike, Ben and occasionally Bill, but they did care about sports, too much really. If Eddie even slightly messed up in a baseball game Henry would get extremely pissed, and in the locker rooms Eddie wouldn’t hear the end of it, a chorus of  _ ‘what the fuck was that?!’ _ and  _ ‘are you trying to make us look shit?”  _ coming from Henry and the others, and it wasn’t exactly a rarity for Henry to get physical either. Eddie understood it, he could be better at baseball, and if he tried harder he wouldn’t have fucked up- but Henry did get very angry extremely quickly.

Henry would be pissed now for sure, which scared Eddie a lot more than he’d admit. Ideally, Eddie wouldn’t have had practice now, or he would’ve been able to ditch with Richie. But he does have practice, and Eddie couldn’t exactly skip the rest of the day with someone he hardly knew, it was a miracle Richie put up with him for lunch. Eddie liked Richie, he always had in a way. He just seemed so nice, so happy, so different from everyone Eddie had to hang out with. And Eddie knew that he probably annoyed Richie a lot, his friends never gave Richie a break and Eddie wasn’t any better, he never tried to defend the other boy, just watched as Henry beat the shit out of him time and time again, until today. But then he ruined any strength he showed by fleeing, by running away from the problem and dragging a most likely unwilling Richie Tozier with him.

Just as Eddie entered the locker room and was about to type out a reply to Richie, he was interrupted with a loud, “HEY! Kasprak!” from the other side of the room, he switched his phone off to see Henry Bowers marching towards him, along with a nervous looking Bill trying to hold the taller boy back, “What the fuck was that?” Henry spat, forcefully pushing Eddie back, “You think you’re strong now? Huh?”

Eddie’s mouth opened and closed a few times, looking up at Henry with fear, “I-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Henry sneered, “I don’t want to  _ fucking  _ hear it.”

“Henry! Stop,” Bill was trying to get Henry away from Eddie, and calm the situation, as he always did.

“Denbrough I swear to fucking God,” Henry spun around and pushed Bill back, not nearly as hard as he shoved Eddie, but hard enough for Bill to get the idea and stop trying to protect his friend. As soon as Bill stopped pestering Henry, he was able to turn back around to Eddie, Eddie expected a punch, or another degrading comment, however, Henry instead chose to grab him by his shirt and practically throw him across the room. After he let go Eddie couldn’t regain his footing and ended up tripping over a bench and crashing to the floor, banging his head in the process. He tried to get up, being stupid enough to think that was all Henry was going to do when Henry grabbed him again. This time by the back of his shirt, and as he pulled Eddie up he punched the short boy just under his left rib cage, yet again sending Eddie flying backward- this time into the bench, also causing pain to shoot down his spine. Eddie winced at the pain, earning a laugh from Henry. Then, just for good measure Henry crouched down so he was still hunched over Eddie, Eddie looked up at him, not knowing what to expect, and apparently, Henry still hadn’t had enough, as he brought his fist back before swiftly pounding it into the side of Eddie’s face. The boy instinctively curled in on himself to both grip at his waist and pull a shaking hand up to his cheek, while at the same time trying not to cry.

“Don’t you  _ ever _ fucking treat me like that again,” Henry spat, “And if I see you talking to that faggot again I won’t be this nice.”

With that, Henry got up and left like it was nothing, everyone who was watching the whole ordeal was also now changed into their sports kits and followed Henry out to practice- except Bill.

“Eddie?!” His friend rushed over to him, and he was still curled up wincing in pain, “I’m s-so s-s-sorry, Eddie?”

“I’m going to skip,” Eddie mumbled, sitting up slightly, “not that I could play if I wanted to, my fucking waist feels like it’s on fire.”

“I sh-should h-have stopped h-h-him,” Bill was speaking to Eddie, but it sounded like he was thinking out loud more than anything.

“I don’t need constant protection Bill,” Eddie pointed out, despite obviously needing constant protection from Bill.

“I know,” Bill replied, “but s-s-some h-help never h-hurts.”

Eddie smiled at his friend before saying, “You should probably go, otherwise you’ll be late.”

Bill smiled back in response, “Y-Yeah, s-see y-you l-later?”

“I’ll probably just go home in a bit, so tomorrow.”

“See ya then,” Bill stood up and gave Eddie a wave goodbye, before jogging out to join the rest of the team.

Eddie sat where he was, still leaning against the bench, for a minute or two. He had no idea what he was meant to do now; he couldn’t go out to practice- at this point, he was too late and would get in trouble, and his side hurt way too much. He also couldn’t go home- his mom would throw a fit at him being there so early and she’d get really mad at him when she saw the bruise that would inevitably form on his face. Sure, she would see it sooner or later, but Eddie would rather it be later. He could probably just sit in the locker rooms for the rest of practice, but there wasn’t exactly anything to do in there and he would have to leave before Henry and everyone else got back anyway.

As Eddie was thinking through his options, he couldn’t help but consider trying to see Richie. Sure, Henry had very clearly told Eddie not to talk to Richie, and if Henry saw them together they’d both just get hurt. And Richie was currently in biology with Stanley, and definitely wouldn’t just leave so Eddie could skip with someone; they hardly knew each other and it wasn’t like Richie would want to be Eddie’s friend anyway. Earlier Richie said they were, but you can’t really be friends with someone after not even one lunchtime, and Richie seemed like the type of person to just be nice to everyone, which is probably why Eddie liked him so much.

Part of Eddie had always liked Richie, he never really knew the guy and only spoke to him briefly one time before, but he knew that he definitely liked him. No matter what happened to Richie he still would just smile and brush it off, Eddie had witnessed the fights- if you could even call them that- between Henry and Richie countless times now, each time Henry beating Richie to the floor harder than the last, leaving the boy with more bruises and marks than before. Eddie would’ve helped- he wanted to, really- but he was too scared. Eddie saw himself in Richie when Henry got mad at the glasses wearing boy, he would even freeze up at times- almost feeling the pain- and just stare at Richie’s face being hit time and time again. Thinking over it, it was probably less of Eddie feeling it and more of him just remembering it. Almost everything Henry had done to Richie publically for all to see, Eddie had received privately. No, not to the same extent or anywhere near the same amount, but it happened. Eddie never did anything though, for Richie, technically he did today- but not really. And then he ran away after, proving he wasn’t really that strong at all.

The more Eddie thought about Richie, still huddled on the changing room floor, the more he wanted to joke and laugh with him again, walk around and just talk to him- be with him. It was stupid really, he’d known the guy about two minutes, but he couldn’t help it that Richie was so nice to him. Eddie didn’t even realize he had his phone out and opened to his and Richie’s short chain of messages until he sent a new one:

_ Can you meet me at the toilets? _

_ Outside science? _

He regretted it as soon as he sent it, it was a stupid text and a stupid request. Richie wouldn’t just leave his lesson to talk to Eddie, especially out of nowhere-

**_Richie:_ ** _ yeh sure. _

**_Richie:_ ** _ everything ok? Something happen? _

Eddie sat up straighter as he read it, realizing that he would now actually have to make his way over to the toilets, and he probably should reply to Richie too,

_ No _

**_Richie:_ ** _ no everythings not ok? Or no nothing happened??? _

Eddie thought it over for a second, considering replying with a simple  _ ‘nvm, it’s sorted,’  _ but instead typed:

_ Not okay _

As Eddie stood up his side screamed at him in pain, and he had to try even harder to hold back the tears that were still threatening to spill out. He wasn’t going to cry- not over Henry and definitely not in front of Richie. He was better than that, he just needed to talk to Richie for whatever reason and then he would wait for Bill to finish practice and go home as normal.

The walk to the toilets was painful, to say the least, normally Henry didn’t hit Eddie that hard when he would occasionally get mad at Eddie, but after lunch earlier he was pretty pissed off. Eventually Eddie did make it to the toilets, and he could see Richie already waiting outside them, being a lot quicker as he was already in biology and didn’t have an extremely painful side. As Eddie approached the taller boy he had to fight even harder to hold back his tears, he’d only ever cried in front of Bill- he knew boys weren’t meant to cry, they were meant to be strong.

“Eds?” Richie asked as Eddie finally reached him, looking at Eddie with a face of confusion, “You okay? What’s wrong?”

And all of a sudden, with those four simple words, Eddie physically felt himself break. The tears he was  _ determined  _ to keep in, keep hidden, were now all of a sudden spilling from his eyes as he looked up at a now very concerned looking Richie. Richie, out of instinct, reached forward for Eddie, to comfort the crying boy in any way possible, but Eddie flinched back from Richie’s grasp. He instead brought his own hands up to his eyes, desperately rubbing at them to dry the tears; he  _ wasn’t _ going to just stand here and cry. He’s stronger than that.

“Eddie,” Richie was barely whispering, Eddie still drying the never-ending tears rolling down his cheeks, Eddie moved his hands to look at Richie. He was still crying, and he hated it, but he looked up at Richie nonetheless, “Oh shit,” Richie suddenly had a very different tone, and Eddie assumed that wasn’t what he was originally going to say, “what happened to your face?”

As he asked it, Richie slowly moved one of his hands up to where Henry had hit Eddie earlier, and as he stroked over where the mark was impossibly slowly, Eddie flinched back for a second time.

“Eds, what happened?”

“Henry,” Eddie mumbled out, and he felt the tears that had significantly slowed down threaten to spill out all over again.

“Did he do anything else to you?” Richie asked, knowing all too well that Henry was rarely satisfied after only one punch.

Eddie nodded in response, “My waist, and back. He punched me in the side so I fell back into the bench,” as he finished it the tears started falling all over again, despite that being the thing he wanted the least right now. They were heavier than before as well, and as Eddie pulled his hands up to his eyes for the second time he felt Richie lightly grab hold of his upper arms and lead him into the actual toilets, which made more sense than just standing in the hall like they were doing up to that point. Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone else inside, but Eddie still felt like shit for letting himself cry in front of Richie.

“Did he say anything to you?” Richie sounded both angry and sorry, and Eddie had no idea why, he still didn’t know why Richie was still putting up with his crying.

“Just that he ‘wouldn’t be that nice’ if he saw me talking to you again,” Eddie mumbled, “and I don’t know what I’m meant to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t go home, I can’t go to practice, and I can’t just wander around the school,” Eddie pointed out, “So I messaged you, because- because, I don’t know. I’m sorry, it’s probably annoying, I just don’t know what to do- and now I’m crying and-”

“Let’s skip,” Richie suggested, cutting Eddie off from rambling.

“W-What?”

“Spaghetti, if you haven’t noticed, I don’t have many friends. And then today suddenly you want to spend time with me? And then think to text me, even if I was your last option, so, we’re going to skip- and I’m going to buy you an ice cream.”

“You weren’t my last choice,” Eddie quickly says, and he doesn’t really know why he says it at all, “I could’ve gone to Mike or Ben.”

“Come on then, Spaghetti. I’ll text Stan to grab my stuff for me, I’ve got my keys on me.”

“Wait, we’re actually leaving?”

“There’s no use in sitting in the toilets for the rest of the day, Eds.”

The walk to the car park wasn’t a long one, and once Richie got a text back saying Stanley would grab his things they were good to go. Eddie was shocked when Richie lead him to the truck at the back of the car park- he didn’t expect Richie to have a truck, especially one this nice. He wasn’t even allowed a cheap car; they were too dangerous, too expensive, and completely unnecessary- according to his mother.

“No way this is yours,” Eddie awed in amazement as he looked over the vehicle in front of him.

“Yep!” Richie cheered in response, “Birthday present last year, although it is my dad’s old one.”

“I’m not even allowed a car,” Eddie wasn’t looking at Richie at all, still staring at the silver truck next to them.

“Really? My parents were sick of me using theirs,” Richie left out a laugh before suddenly stopping, noticing the change of expression on Eddie, “You okay?”

“I’m not even allowed a license,” Eddie sighed, “ _ ‘You’ll get hurt Eddie-bear’, ‘I just care about you Eddie’, ‘Those things are too expensive and do no good, you have no need for one’ _ ,” Eddie mocked his mother.

“I don’t mind driving you places,” Richie smiled as he made his way over to the driver’s side and opened the door, “Or teaching you. I’m an amazing teacher,” an obnoxious wink, “Now get in, we’re getting ice cream.”

Eddie smiled back at Richie before getting in the passenger seat, “I’d like that.”

Richie just smiled wider.

They didn’t talk much as Richie drove them to the ice cream place, he had some shitty song Eddie didn’t know playing and was happily drumming his fingers to the beat while singing along. He was an awful singer, but it was amusing.

“IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE,” he started shouting as the song was on one of its last choruses, “AT LEAST IN HEAVEN I CAN SKATE!”

“Do you even own a skateboard?” Eddie interrupted, significantly happier since being in the car with Richie and his awful singing.

“You really think this lanky body could work a skateboard?” Richie asked, still smiling at Eddie like there was no tomorrow.

“It wouldn’t really suit you,” Eddie teased, Richie was in an old Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans that were ripped from being worn too much, not exactly the skater aesthetic.

“Rude,” Richie jokingly pouted at Eddie, “You saying I’m not cool enough to skateboard?”

“Is skateboarding even cool anymore?” Eddie asked, “I swear it was a big thing in, like, the 90’s.”

“I think it still is?” Richie didn’t seem to sure himself, “I mean it’s skateboarding, it’s always been a thing.”

“I guess.”

They arrived at the ice cream place shortly after the conversation, and Richie’s company had somehow caused Eddie to almost forget he was ever upset in the first place, and then he stepped out the truck and his side stung with pain once again. He got over this quickly though as Richie excitedly ran over to the entrance, over-enthusiastically bouncing on his feet with the smile that never seemed to leave still on his face. Eddie smiled at the sight of it as he ran to catch up with his new-found friend. They received a few stares as they entered the small building, confused faces silently asking why they weren’t in school. But neither of them were particularly bothered by it, it was no one’s business besides their own.

Richie ordered a pistachio cone easily, and Eddie spent about five minutes reading over every flavor, not knowing what he wanted. Eventually, he chose vanilla, it was simple and easy, and he wasn’t exactly in an adventurous mood. Not that he ever was. Richie called his choice borning, pointing out how there were so many better flavors, and Eddie agreed really. Yet at the same time, vanilla is ultimately unbeatable, no matter what mood you’re in a good old vanilla ice cream will always make you feel better. And that’s what Eddie currently needed, to just feel better and be happy.

After they got their ice creams and returned to Richie’s truck, time went by too quickly for Eddie’s liking. All they did was drive around in circles through Derry, something that in theory should feel like forever. However, hanging out with Richie, much like at lunch, seemed to only last seconds, and soon enough Eddie was telling Richie how to get to his house so he could be dropped off. Ideally, he’d be able to stay with Richie a lot longer, but his mom liked him home on time, and he already dragged Richie out of the cafeteria and biology now.

Eddie’s house wasn’t the nicest, they lived in the more run-down side of Derry. This meant that Eddie and his mom lived in a small and sad house with too many problems that Sonia was too cheap to fix: Eddie couldn’t remember the last time they had decent heating, the carpets were fading and old, every stair seemed to creak, and for good measure the front lawn was never mowed either. It was slightly embarrassing having to tell Richie that yes, this shithole is where Eddie lived, but Richie obviously pretended not to notice the dirty exterior and cluttered lawn, as he didn’t say anything about the house, and instead just wished Eddie ‘ _ goodbye’  _ and _ ‘See ya tomorrow’.  _

Eddie didn’t know if he’d see Richie tomorrow, but he said he would anyways.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short little filler!! I've had slight writer's block recently, hopefully, I'll get back into it again soon :')  
> I'm active on Tumblr though!! Follow me @kzspbrak :)

Richie hadn’t stopped complaining to Stanley since lunch started, he hadn’t spoken to Eddie since he dropped the boy off at his house the previous day, and he was only slightly annoyed by it, “But Stan, why won’t he talk to me?” Richie whined for the tenth time to his now slightly annoyed friend.

“It’s only lunch,” Stanley reminded, “You only started talking to him yesterday lunch, just be patient.”

“But I want to talk to him again,” Richie was only getting whinier.

“If you ignored your stupid crush for one second you’d realize how ridiculous you sound right now,” a pause, “Are you looking at him? Richie, stop looking at him, I guarantee you he isn’t ignoring you.”

“He won’t even smile back,” Richie complained, turning back to Stanley, “And I don’t have a crush on him.”

“Of course you don’t.”

“I don’t! I used to think he was good looking- which he is, and now I want to talk to him again because he was nice yesterday.”

“I didn’t say liking him like that was a bad thing, did I?”

“All I’m saying is wanting to be friends with a good looking guy isn’t a crush.”

“What if it’s a good-looking guy you used to have a crush on?” Stanley asked, probably enjoying Richie getting slightly annoyed a bit too much.

“It’s not a crush,” Richie reminded again, before a few seconds later complaining again, “I just want to talk to him again.”

“You were with him for ages last night I thought?” Stanley asked, How late were you out?”

“Last period only, his mom has a shitty curfew.”

“Oh,” Stanley looked like he was thinking something over, “That’s a shame… And why exactly do you think he’s ignoring you? You sure he’s purposely avoiding you? Or has he just not gotten the chance to talk to you?”

“I said hi to him earlier, and he just shuffled off, I’ve smiled at him tons now and he just looks away, it just feels like he’s ignoring me,” Richie genuinely sounded slightly hurt as he said it, to Stan’s surprise.

“Maybe he just hasn’t had the chance to talk to you? Is there a reason he wouldn’t even smile at you?”

“I don’t know,” a pause, “I’ll be fine- I guess I just thought he’d at least smile or something. I get that Henry’s a fuckface so it’s not like we could talk much. But just after yesterday, y’know?”

“What actually happened yesterday?” Stanley asked as he finished his sandwich, “Anything that would make him not want to see you?”

“We just got ice cream and hung out,” Richie took a long pause, “I told you why we skipped right?”

“Not fully, but yes,” Stan answered.

“I think he said something about Henry telling him not to talk to me, or he’d beat the shit out of Eds again, I just don’t why he’s ignoring me when Henry’s not there too.”

“Oh, he’s probably just scared,” Stanley sounded like he wanted to carry on talking, but before he could Beverly arrived at the table, Ben was with her too- meaning they’d probably been walking around together.

“What’s up fuckers?” The girl asked as she dropped her lunch on the table, Ben sitting down next to her in a much calmer matter, “You alright?” She then asked, noticing Richie’s lower mood almost immediately.

“He’s upset that Eddie’s full attention isn’t on him,” Stan forgot Ben was at the table with them for a second and felt slightly bad as he realized, but the snort Beverly let out at the comment caused everyone (except Richie) to laugh.

“It’s been a day,” Beverly said the same thing Stanley had said about twenty times, “And you know how Henry is.”

“He likes you,” Ben spoke up in a reassuring way after Beverly finished, “I shouldn’t tell you really- and don’t tell him I did- but he was telling me about you earlier. He trusts you, which is more than most people get with him.”

Richie smiled at Ben, and he was pretty sure he saw Stanley smile too, “It just felt like he was ignoring me- that’s all,” he shrugged, trying to make it seem minor to him, “Like when I smile at him he just looks away.”

“He’ll open up,” Ben reassured again, “He has a lot going on, I don’t even know half of it.”

“His mom’s Sonia right?” Beverly asked.

“Yep,” Ben sighed, “She’s an… Interesting character.”

“Called me an  _ ‘awful young lady’ _ once,” Beverly mocked, “I was just in the corner store, I can’t even remember what I did.”

“Wait who is she?” Richie asked, “Looking between Bev and Ben.

“The awful church bitch, always in that tacky pearl necklace and has glasses worse than yours,” Beverly wasn’t even trying to hide her distaste for the woman.

“She’s always at the pharmacy, kind of fat,” Ben added.

Richie could imagine her now, he was pretty sure he saw her around a few times, “Oh yeah, I know her. That’s actually Eddie’s mom?”

“Yep,” Ben replied, “It’s not great.”

The four of them carried on talking for the rest of lunch, which seemed to only last minutes. Ben, unsurprisingly, was actually really nice. It made sense, being Beverly’s boyfriend and all, but was reassuring nonetheless.

Towards the end of lunch, Richie found himself shamelessly looking in Eddie’s direction again. As much as he would never admit it to Stanley, the crush he had on Eddie a while ago still lingered with him- he didn’t mind it really, crushes were harmless, and it wasn’t like he was pining over him- but telling Stanley and Beverly it was still there wouldn’t do any good. Telling Beverly realistically could be a direct route to Eddie, all she had to do was mention it to Ben (which wouldn’t really offend Richie in the slightest, they were dating after all) and then Ben would just have to tell Bill, Mike or Eddie himself. Plus, if Henry found out that Richie actually was gay and there was now some proof for it- Richie’s life would be even more hellish. But worst of all, if it got back to Eddie he wouldn’t even want to look at Richie- no jock wants the faggot’s attention. So, Richie would just have to keep it a secret, he trusted Stanley and Beverly with his life, but the risks were still there- and realistically they probably already knew.

Eddie was sat in the same seat, as usual, today between Mike and Bill. Henry was still near though, mainly talking to Patrick, Victor, and Belch like he normally would, but Richie also noticed him glaring at Eddie every once in a while. It made sense for Eddie to avoid him, not wave or smile, as soon as Henry felt like he had an opportunity he’d beat the shit out of Eddie again- it still slightly hurt Richie though. 

As he and Beverly get up to go to social studies, leaving Ben and Stanley to go in their own directions, Beverly looks at Richie with a look that’s never good. The look that shows she knows something or wants to know something, it also means that Richie probably won’t enjoy the following conversation, because she knows something about him.

“I know why you skipped yesterday, by the way,” she says. Richie hadn’t gotten a chance to tell Beverly about yesterday.

“Did Stan tell you?” Richie guessed.

“Ben,” Beverly corrected, “Eddie phoned him last night.”

“Oh.”

“You still like him, don’t you?”

“I don’t think I can,” Richie answered only partially honestly, “I only liked him before because he’s objectively good-looking, was nicer to me, and he seemed like a good person.”

Beverly smiled at Richie, and he couldn’t tell for the life of him what it was meant to mean.

“What?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at the redhead.

“Considering how butthurt you were because he hasn’t spoken to you yet today, I think it’s fair to assume you still like him a little bit.”

“Yeah, as friends,” Richie said it like it was obvious, but he could feel himself becoming red at the interrogation.

“Sure, just like he likes you as a friend.”

“What?” Richie was genuinely confused at what Beverly was saying, and only getting redder as she spoke.

“Oh, nothing. I was just talking to Ben earlier, that’s all.”

“What does that even mean?” Richie asked, pretty desperate for answers at this point.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s fine. Let’s get to social studies.”


End file.
